Monday, April 01, 2013

Bountiful Easter Brunch

We had such a sweet family brunch yesterday for Easter. It was just perfect - my wonderful family, a half-sunny spring morning after a night of rain, flowers on the table, and lots of delicious food.

Of course I made my favorite Easter treat - Hot Cross Buns! I've been looking forward to these babies for many weeks now. I made them the night before, got a perfect first rise, and then put them in the fridge for a second slow rise over night. When I took them out of the oven, they looked absolutely perfect - except that the bottoms were all totally burnt!! BOO.

So, I did what any bun-loving person would do, I got out a serrated knife and carefully sliced off the bottoms of every single one. Ha ha. Luckily, other than the burnt bottoms, they were absolutely perfect. Light and fluffy and totally delicious. In fact, they may have been my most delicious batch ever. I wonder if it's because I used my new sample of "Beyond Eggs" instead of my usual EnerG egg replacer?? I'm eager to experiment with Beyond Eggs in more baking projects...

I also made a Broccoli Tofu Quiche. I used the recipe from Vegan Brunch as a starting point, but then I added in a whole bunch of other stuff to zip up the flavor. I think my favorite tofu quiche recipe is the one from Modern Vegetarian Kitchen, by Peter Berley. The problem is, that recipe calls for tons of mushrooms, which isn't really my thing. So, I sorta used the seasons from MVK and the veggies+spices from VB, and ended up with something delicious. One great tip from MVK is to sprinkle the top with paprika, which really makes the quiche look so beautiful when it's baked. Also, in the interest of being judicious with calories, I left off the crust entirely, and the quiche was still super delicious!

This year, Mr. Vegan Eats & Treats was inspired to be in charge of making fruit salad! He doesn't do much in the kitchen, so this was pretty cool. He needed a little help with figuring out how to cut up a pineapple, but other than that, he did it himself. He put in pineapple, strawberries, bananas, apples and little wedges from tangerines. It was super delicious. I love fruit salad so much, but somehow I only have it on special occasions. It's just so beautiful, like bowl full of jewels!

My mom brought over two big trays of asparagus, which we roasted in the oven. I love love love roasted asparagus. It's simple, fuss-free, and hard to ruin. You can do other things in the kitchen while it cooks, it's very forgiving if you over cook it, and it's also just basically delicious.

My aunt Sara's boyfriend Ed is Jewish, and so he brought along some amazing Charoset he had made for Passover. He had made a big batch for a seder with some kiddos, so instead of using wine he'd used raspberry juice. OMG. It was so crazy delicious. Just apples, walnuts and raspberry juice - served with matzo crackers. I loved this stuff so much. I could have probably eaten the whole entire bowl of it.

Oh the charoset was totally delicious. There are millions of recipes online... And - yes! - you must make a tofu quiche. They are so easy and yummy. The best part is, you can taste the filling and if you like it, you'll like the quiche. If not, you can keep tweaking it until you are happy - and then cook it. :)

Hi KB!If you want a charoset recipe similar to Amey's with apples, you should google for Ashkenazi recipes! Sephardic charoset is usually really different made with nuts and dried fruit like figs and dates.

ha ha, fruit salad is totally a pain to make! I'm sorry to say that I got my Beyond Eggs sample from my Vegan Cuts snack box, and not from when I signed up on their website for a sample. It's a lot like EnerG (a powder that you mix with water)... but everyone noticed that the buns were lighter and fluffier this year - and the B.E. is the only thing I did differently. Want me to send you the rest of my baggie, so you can try it?

What an perfect brunch. Everything looks amazing, I can't wait for in season asparagus! I love the VB quiche especially because it's so easy to change up the veggies to use whatever you have. The fruit salad looks great too, I totally find making fruit salad a pain too but it's always totally worth it.